PARIS — Citizens of the world’s richest countries are getting fatter and fatter and the United States is leading the charge, an organization of leading economies said Thursday in its first ever obesity forecast.

Three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020, and disease rates and health care spending will balloon, unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a comprehensive strategy to combat the epidemic, the study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

The Paris-based organization, which brings together 33 of the world’s leading economies, is better known for forecasting deficit and employment levels than for measuring waistlines. But the economic cost of excess weight — in health care, and in lives cut short and resources wasted — is a growing concern for many governments.

Franco Sassi, the OECD senior health economist who authored the report, blamed the usual suspects for the increase.

“Food is much cheaper than in the past, in particular food that is not particularly healthy, and people are changing their lifestyles, they have less time to prepare meals and are eating out more in restaurants,” said Sassi, a former London School of Economics lecturer who worked on the report for three years.

That plus the fact that people are much less physically active than in the past means that the ranks of the overweight have swelled to nearly 70 percent in the U.S. this year from well under 50 percent in 1980, according to the OECD.

In 10 years, a full 75 percent of Americans will be overweight, making it “the fattest country in the OECD,” the report said.

The same factors driving the epidemic in the U.S. are also at work in other wealthy and developing countries, Sassi said. “There is a frightening increase in the epidemic,” Sassi said, “We’ve not reached the plateau yet.”

The lifespan of an obese person is up to 8-10 years shorter than that of a normal-weight person, the OECD said, the same loss of lifespan incurred by smoking.

In the U.S. the cost in dollars of obesity, including higher health care spending and lost production, is already equivalent to 1 percent of the country’s total gross domestic product, the report said. That compares to half a percent in other OECD countries, Sassi said.

These costs could rise two- or threefold over the coming years, the OECD said, citing another study that forecast obesity and overweight-related health care costs would rise 70 percent by 2015 and could be 2.4 times higher than the current level in 2025.

The OECD found that rates of obesity, defined as a body mass index above 30, show a wide variation across its member countries, ranging from as little as 3-4 percent of the population in Japan and Korea to around one-third in the U.S. and Mexico.

“However, rates are also increasing in these countries,” the OECD said. Outside the OECD, obesity rates are rising at similarly fast rates in countries such as Brazil, China, India and Russia.

The OECD advises governments on economic growth, social development and financial stability.

"No time?" Most people have plenty of time for excercise. When the average North American watches around 33 hours of TV a week, they've got plenty of time to take out a whole 40-60 minutes of their day to do something physical. Given the overall quality of TV programming these days, you won't miss much during that time. Heck, you can even combine the two at home! Watch TV while you're doing sit-ups or whatever!

Surf the net instead of watching TV? You'll miss even less if you log off for an hour or so every day. I seriously doubt that you're getting THAT many updates (and they can wait, anyway).

Junk food is cheap, and it contains a lot of calories. Healthy food, such as fresh vegetables and fruit, is expensive. It also usually takes a bit longer to cook a healthy meal (there are exceptions). Sodas are huge in calories, and people drink them instead of water or lowfat milk.

In any case, the food system makes it easy for people to take in a lot of calories.

Also, as has been noticed, people don't get enough exercise. They eat lots of calories, eat shortly before going to sleep (when the body can't do anything besides make the food into stored energy), and don't have any sort of physical activity in their lives.

Junk food is cheap, and it contains a lot of calories. Healthy food, such as fresh vegetables and fruit, is expensive. It also usually takes a bit longer to cook a healthy meal (there are exceptions). Sodas are huge in calories, and people drink them instead of water or lowfat milk.

In any case, the food system makes it easy for people to take in a lot of calories.

Also, as has been noticed, people don't get enough exercise. They eat lots of calories, eat shortly before going to sleep (when the body can't do anything besides make the food into stored energy), and don't have any sort of physical activity in their lives.

I quite agree. Let's add to this the fact that TV is filled with ads and subliminal messages encouraging you to eat all that junk. And people are lazy. At least most people are....

Junk food is cheap, and it contains a lot of calories. Healthy food, such as fresh vegetables and fruit, is expensive. It also usually takes a bit longer to cook a healthy meal (there are exceptions). Sodas are huge in calories, and people drink them instead of water or lowfat milk.

In any case, the food system makes it easy for people to take in a lot of calories.

Also, as has been noticed, people don't get enough exercise. They eat lots of calories, eat shortly before going to sleep (when the body can't do anything besides make the food into stored energy), and don't have any sort of physical activity in their lives.

I quite agree. Let's add to this the fact that TV is filled with ads and subliminal messages encouraging you to eat all that junk. And people are lazy. At least most people are....

Let's throw some energy drinks in there. Nobody needs that much sugar and caffeine except during very intense workouts, yet people drink them like water and then wonder why their waists are expanding and they have trouble sleeping. And when they're exhausted from their sleep problems, what do they do? Grab more caffeine. It's a vicious cycle, I tells ya.

Share By GREG KELLER unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a comprehensive strategy to combat the epidemic, the study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.eight have swelled to nearly 70 percent in the U.S. this year from well under 50 percent in 1980, according to the OECD.

The same factors driving the epidemic in the U.S.

Dear God, will people STOP using the word "epidemic" when they're talking about obesity? "Epidemic" refers to a DISEASE, one that can only be spread from person to person. The term is completely misapplied here and just some BS way to make the story more exciting. Anyway, on with the other stuff...

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The OECD found that rates of obesity, defined as a body mass index above 30

Ok, this is BMI was never originally intended to measure how "fat" a person was. If you use just the BMI, then 2/3 of guys in the NFL and even some athletics like Michael Jordan would be considered "fat".

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The lifespan of an obese person is up to 8-10 years shorter than that of a normal-weight person, the OECD said, the same loss of lifespan incurred by smoking.

Which, ironically enough, is the reason why many people ARE thin: smoking is a natural weight suppressant for many. But, as the numbers have smokers have declined over the years, well, guess another bad habit had to replace it.

Anyway, not trying to say there isn't a problem, but I'm not convinced it's quite as dire as a lot of these people are making it. Plus, I kind of see it this way, it's a heck of lot better than us a mass STARVATION problem.